Making up Hanging Baskets

Hanging baskets have their place in the summer garden. They can be a lot of work though if you don’t have a watering system, but don’t let that put you off, it can be a lovely meditative job on a summers evening caring for them.

Making up your own Hanging Baskets
To get started you will need the following: A basket, basket liner or moss, plants, slow release fertilizer granules and some water retaining granules (optional).

• First rest the basket onto a bucket or pot for a good base when working.
• Water the plants and soil.
• Insert the liner I used coco fibre liners last year; they have holes already in the sides, which saved me having to use my brain to get the plants evenly spaced. If you are using moss, then line the basket to halfway up the sides.
• There are no fixed rules on plants to use, but you won’t go far wrong putting three or six plants (or clumps if you use Lobelia) through the side of the basket. Trailing plants also look effective. Then line the moss to the top of the basket and fill with compost.
• Add slow release fertilizer granules and moisture retaining granules if needed.
• Put a tall plant in the centre, such as a begonia or a pelargonium (geranium) and lower growing plants around it. If using trailing plants on the top of the basket, put them 6cm (2in) from the edge. They will fill out nicely by the time they trail over the edge of the basket. If you do buy the plants from the garden centres it is still early days for annual plants. Harden them off for a few days in a sheltered spot before you plant them up
• Once planted, water thoroughly, allow to soak, and then water again. Protect from strong sunlight for a few days and take them in if there is a frost or a very cold wind like we had last week. Deadhead the flowers regularly and water them frequently (They will need watering even if the weather is cloudy and wet in summer) and an organic liquid feed when the plants look as though they need perking up.

Tip- If you use moss peat and the basket does dry out, no amount of watering will wet the inside of the soil. Take down the basket and place it in a large container full of water, leave it until it is just about to sink, then pull it out. This sounds drastic, but it will save the plants! Alternatively you could use a John Innes soil based compost or mix some weed free garden soil into your peat. This will soak up the water without resorting to drowning the baskets in a bucket.

Plants for the Baskets
Choose plants that have a long flowering season to get the best out of the basket. Whichever plants you choose remember that they have been grown indoors and they will need a bit of protection against the elements for the first few days, so put them in a sheltered spot for a day or two. Try filling the basket with just one type of plant for a dramatic effect. Busy Lizzies; fuchsias or geraniums give a brilliant display until the first frosts. Avoid plants such as nemesia unless you can grow new plants at regular intervals as they only flower for a short period. Here are a few on offer that I found to be reliable in baskets: Ajuga ,Bidens, Begonia,Brachycome.,Cineraria maritime, Fuchsias,Geranium, Golden Creeping Jenny,Helichrysum , Ivy leaf- geraniums, Ivy varieties,Nasturtium ,Pansies,Petunia,Purple heuchera and Verbena.

Care of the Basket
Hanging baskets are very demanding things. Unless you have a very reliable relation, friend or neighbour you will not get a holiday in summer. Even on the driest days they will need watering at least twice a day. If you have a lot of baskets then you might like to consider a self-watering system. This will drip feed your baskets at a set time throughout the day and night by means of a twenty-four hour timer. For a regular house you could fit one of these systems for as little as €200 euro or less. You will be free all summer and the plants would thrive. A small price to pay I think.

When you fit the basket to the wall or a post, remember that they are heavy when full of water. Check the brackets are in good condition and that the chains are strong. The baskets can come down with a mighty bump.

If you do let the basket dry out then they are impossible to water in the normal manner, as the water will just run off the surface. Take the basket down and put it into a large container full of water. Leave it long enough until the basket starts to sink and pull it out. The basket is now fully watered.

Even if the basket has slow release fertiliser in it you will be well advised to still feed the plants at regular intervals. There just isn’t the soil in the containers to meet the need of all the plants. I find organic tomato feed as good as anything as it promotes flowering.

A Day in the Life

 

A little music to help the seedlings grow.

It’s amazing how a simple a morning can end up being packed full of diversity. Here’s what happened last Saturday when I had nothing to do.

8 am
It’s a lovely sunny morning and a load of washing has just finished in the machine. I pop the clothes into a basket and stroll to the washing line.
8:01
Just before I get to the line, I brush past the dead heads of the hydrangea shrub “I’ll cut those back” I’m thinking. I put the washing basket down onto the grass and go to the shed to get the loppers. I find an old fire grate too so that goes under the arm as well. The grate is cast iron, iron makes pink hydrangeas turn blue. It’s worth a try and will give me a reason for throwing it into the garden.
8.10
That didn’t take long; all of the cut off stems have been thrown into a pile under the trees to rot down.
8:11
Julie wants to sow some seeds today so I pop into the shed to fill the seed trays with my special mix. Loads of light gets in through the big window so they should get a good start. I am distracted for a minute though as I have to squeeze past the drum set. I’ll just have a quick practice.
9.00
The drum solo took a bit longer than expected, but I’m ready to fill the trays with compost. Julie comes in with the seed packets. She starts to plant carrots, courgettes, peas, beans, tomatoes and lettuce. We usually get our seed packs from places like B+Q and get a good number of seeds. We tried the Lidl ones this year, OK they are cheaper, but couldn’t believe it when we opened up the tomato packet and found 7 seeds, yes 7 tomato seeds. We’ll have to get some more. Last year we had foamy tomatoes so this year they will all be the small varieties.
9:30
I leave Julie to sow dwarf sweet peas (larger ones on the list of things to get) purple sprouting broccoli, (not the calibrese ones as they flower in summer) and curly kale. I can play the drums again later; it might help the seedlings to grow.
9:40
I’m shovelling soil into the sieve to add to the raised beds. My lad has joined me to do a bit of French hoeing to kill off the young weed seedlings. He has to work his way around the hazel sticks I put in for the plants to grow up. Most of them are growing leaves so it looks as though they are still alive. The dogs are busy hiding in the gorse bushes waiting for me to throw them a stick.
10:45
Julie comes up and starts planting onion sets and more seeds in the cleared beds. Peas, beans, carrots, this packet (again from Lidl) give us spaced out carrot seeds in a strip, beetroot, perpetual spinach, rocket, radishes and white turnips when we can find the packet. It’s gone walkabout. There will be some successive sowing this year with crops such as peas, carrots and salad leaves. The longer we can keep out of the supermarket vegetable section the happier I’ll be.
10:57
The strawberries are put back in after being trimmed. Both alpine and regular ones go in together. It’s a bit of a shady spot, so the alpine ones will be happy at least.
11:00
We will put hazel branches over the beds after planting to keep the dogs off, or give them something to chew on as they carry on playing in the beds. Don’t worry if you haven’t got your seeds planted yet. Klaus Laitenberger , the Leitrim gardener tells us not to take any notice of the seed sowing dates up here in the North West. Leave everything at least a month later that it tells us. Our seed sowing is being done during a waxing moon - this is supposed to be a good time to plant biodynamically.
11:27
I have the strimmer going. It’s first time this year. I am finding loads of old footballs in the undergrowth and carefully going around the trees, hedges and lawn edges.
11:45
I move over to the herb garden to strim the grass paths. Julie has just planted some lettuce plants her father sent over this week in amongst the sage, parsley and chives. I cover the whole lot with grass cuttings as I strim. I’ll tidy it up later. We have a couple of replacements to grow this year in the herb garden as the rosemary and oregano died in the frost.
11:55
Julie cuts back the lemon balm; this grows so quickly it’s already too big. The mint is going to be planted into the ground too this year. It’s not happy confined to a pot. It’ll probably take over the garden, but at least we will have plenty for making tea.
12:14
To finish off strimming, I am now heading up the driveway to get all of the weeds from the edge of the asphalt, this saves on using weedkiller. The wind can blow the cut grass into piles and as long as it doesn’t rain
12:35
I go and see how the sowing is done. The rows are far enough apart to get the hoe into it, this will make weeding really simple later in the season. Spacing is so important in the vegetable patch; it can save you hours of boring weeding in summer.
12:36
I can’t wait any longer to do the sweeping, the mess is annoying me. First though the brush head needs screwing back on again. The dog ate the handle.
1:10
Julie has moved onto the tubs and containers near the shed. More successive sowing starting with the first sowing of rocket, parsley, cut and come again lettuce and radish. We’re still looking for coriander preferably the leafy cilantro. The only thing missing is night scented stock; the sweet heady smell is lovely in the evenings. More seeds to buy and sow.
1:55
I have the mower working now, leaving Julie to the sowing and cutting back. Cutting the grass will take no time at all because I don’t have to go into the corners
2:30
A good morning’s work. Time for a hot chocolate and a butter biscuit, they are the dog’s favourites. Maybe afterwards I’ll get around to hanging up that washing.

Don't Forget the Flowers..

“But not everyone’s interested in growing vegetables.” I’m having a bit of a heated debate with Mary, an avid flower grower in the town.

“It’s all you hear at the moment, grow this, eco that, crisis this and crisis that. All I want to do in the garden is grow a few colourful flowers and relax and forget about all of the troubles in the world. “The colour has risen to Mary’s face like a Moville sunrise as she continues to protest about the growing movement of edible horticulture “At one time we had a balance of gardening. David Hamilton would be in the flower garden on Gardeners’ World and there would be a bit at the end of the programme about growing the vegetables and tell you how to spray on the chemicals, now it’s the other way around. Flowers have become sidelined.” She states animatedly throwing her hands about in the air to mimic airborne gardening, if there is such a thing.

Mary continues without drawing breath. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of saving the planet, but why does it have to be me? All I want to do is grow a few petunias.”
“There needs to be a balance”, I say wisely, picking a bit of dormant information from my brain. “Like in garden design, there needs to be a bit of style, flow, scale and symmetry, texture, colour and above all balance when it comes to gardening.” I’m not making much sense but continue. “Gardening will find its balance soon, inter-planting the veggie bed with flowers might be a start.” I’ve mentioned vegetables again.
“There you go again” Mary interjects.”You haven’t got past the first sentence and you’re talking about bloody vegetables again!” I try to lower her blood pressure level and try and dig my way out of the hole I just dug, “I see the whole issue of gardening as one entity. Flowers, vegetables, shrubs trees, they are all the same.” It didn’t work.

“Not they are not!”, Mary argues and continues gasping, “and I won’t be made to feel guilty about not saving the planet or eating home grown carrots when I’m deadheading the roses. I don’t want to grow vegetables, or get a raised bed for that matter, what’s wrong with growing things in the ground. Why does everything need to be put in beds?” Mary’s arms are now flailing like wind turbines. I’d better not start that topic of conversation.
I look at my watch and give the impression that I have to get over to the other side of the road for something extremely important. “It’s been good talking to you.” I say politely shuffling my feet to the pavement edge. “Got to go”

“And another thing,” Mary has taken to shouting to me from across the High Street, “I’m fed up of being told that I have ‘Cash in my Attic’. Just because there’s a recession on doesn’t mean that I want to go around selling everything to raise a bit of cash. The same goes for saving money on food.” I’m nearly out of ear shot now and slip down a side road out of view. I keep my dignity and refrain from running.
When I bumped into Mary on the street, I was going to mention that there was a talk on in Carndonagh about the food crisis by someone from Equador as part of the Latin American Week. It’s probably a good idea that I didn’t.

Beauty is all around

Mary has had a bit of an effect on me though as I walk back home through the town along the shorefront, I’m concentrating on the freshness of spring flowers. This is a beautiful time of year, with new growth emanating from the ground and promises of things to come. It’s a great time of year to lift and divide any of your favourite perennial plants now.

The bright yellow glow of daffodils from the containers George has planted in the town look lovely in the fresh spring sunshine. We have a vase of beautiful double trumpet daffodils from our own garden on the kitchen table which light up the whole room. New growth is everywhere and the sunshine is reflecting off of the delicate leaves of crocus’s, primroses, violets and aconites that are growing all over Inishowen. Walking through Swan Park, the familiar smell of wild garlic wafts into the air, it’s like seeing an old friend. There’s beauty all around and just for Mary, I have managed to write one whole sentence without mentioning the vegetable garden. That is of course apart from the wild garlic; you can pick the young leaves and add them to your spring salad. Sorry Mary, I tried.

I’ll have to have a look in our attic when I get home.

Talk

Delightful Destruction

Paul has gone back to the UK and left behind a trail of devastation in the woods at the bottom of the garden. At a glance it looks like someone has just driven a large earth mover through the trees in much the same way as they do through the rainforests. Well it looks like devastation on the surface, but in reality he’s actually doing the woodland (and me) a big, big favour (unlike work in the rainforests). He’s letting light onto the woodland floor, increasing wildlife numbers and providing large logs ready to chop for firewood.

Hazel

Hazel trees, his main target for the week in the woods, live a lot longer and are far more productive if hacked down every few years. Because of all of the hacking we have been left with three distinct sizes of hazel to work with.
• The large aforementioned trunks for burning.
• Smaller straight branches for making my pea and bean structures.
• And this year I am trying something new with the smaller branches and fine growing tips of the stems.
Generally I make the structures for the plants to grow up then fill in the gaps weaving jute string around the poles. This year I am interlacing the cut branches into the structure for the plants to cling onto. It will be easier to pick the vegetables through the soft stems and everything can be composted at the end of the growing season. There are no sharp edges to the twigs either as they are so young and fresh. Doing this seems to be keeping the dogs off of the beds, so it’s also a natural friendly dog deterrent too.

Benders

Because the hazel rods are so fresh we were able to bend them right over into a hoop to create the pea bed. The structures only need to be three feet high and bending them into shape like this makes them really rigid and void of any dangerous sharp points. If I can find a piece of polythene large enough I’m going to cover the bed and use it as a mini tunnel to get the season off to an early start.
All you need to build any climbing plant structures are
• Long, straight hazel rods
• String
• A pair of loppers
• A pair of scissors for cutting the string (optional as you could use the loppers)
There’s really no hard and fast rule to making the structures. Have something near for the plants to grow up and tie the knot tight enough so the structure won’t fall down in the wind. Cut off any points that you might catch yourself on when harvesting. It’s usually a good idea to have the structures in place before you plant the vegetables, that way there’s no root disturbance.

Video

As well as the laborious work in the woods we did take a bit of time to become US film stars too. My lad loves to video things, and over the last few years he has built up a bit of a collection of short videos that have ended up on Youtube. He normally does something called “Let’s Play” which consists of playing a Gameboy game all the way through with a running commentary. All very entertaining, but he does take time out to film me in the garden when the sun shines.
We have made videos of yours truly working in a greenhouse, talking about slugs, servicing lawnmowers and taking semi hardwood cuttings. I’m far too embarrassed to watch them and it doesn’t help when I get messages typed up in the comments box that say “That was the most boring video I have ever watched” and “I have wasted 10 minutes of my life watching this.”
We make the videos a lot shorter now. My lad now edits them so a majority of the video plays on fast speed. This ensures that if I am doing something like building a raised bed, I can have it done in two minutes as opposed to the usual twenty, giving viewers their lives back.
Our video last week consisted of Paul talking about the carbon storing benefits of burning wood, biochar, which is the burning of charcoal which also locks in carbon and rockdust as an additive in soil that increases fertility. I then appear in the background of the film brandishing a chainsaw and chop down a dead oak branch, in fast forward. Oh, how we laughed.
We have been noticed though, as I mentioned. A woman in the US who hosts a local gardening programme wants to use the videos in her TV programme. All I can think is that we will probably be shown in the blooper reel or how peculiar the Irish are when it comes to gardening.
There’s one thing for sure though. I won’t be watching it.

Tapping Sap from Birch Trees

 

I was down at Liam’s, our local barber last week. Not that my bald patch needed a polish of course -My lads still have their hair and as much as I offer they won’t let me put the pudding basin on their heads and cut around it. I had that style as a boy and it never did me any harm. I suppose things have changed and pudding basin hair styles have long gone along with tank tops and Glam Rock.
Liam always has an interesting project on the go and this week he told me about how he is tapping birch trees for their sap to make wine. Liam has made wine out of a lot of things growing in the hedgerows and as we speak he will be pulling the thorns out of his hands after picking the gorse flowers for his latest batch. When I got home I thought that we should give this tree tapping idea a bit of a go. I am in the habit of videoing (nearly) everything I do in the garden so got my lad onboard as artistic director and camera person for our latest Youtube classic. Tapping Birch Trees for Sap.

Tapping the Birch

We used two different methods of collecting the sap. The first was to make a 45 degree angle incision in the bark with a sterilised chisel (we used tea tree oil as it seemed apt). We could have used any sharp knife as long as it was clean as we didn’t want to be infecting trees with any fungal diseases. The incision was opened up and a small stick was pushed into the gap. Sharpening the points slightly helps the sap run down the stick and into a container, for this we used a jam jar. Liam is a bit more organised and he fed his sap into a fermenting jar via a food grade rubber pipe. This stops flies getting into the liquid and keeps thing clean.
The second method was inspired by Liam’s idea but we substituted the rubber hose for a drinking straw. I drilled a small hole into the bark just large enough for the straw to fit in snugly. Holding the jar in place on the trees wasn’t a problem I have taken to stripping the leaves of all of our dead cordylines down into fibrous strands. They are remarkably strong and tied together make and ideal string substitute.
The sap is used for wine but can also be drunk fresh from the tree, made into tea, used for cooking and boiled down to make something similar to maple syrup, although I think you would need a lot of liquid to do that.
Liam managed to collect about 1-1.5 gallons of liquid from each tree. We weren’t quite as productive. Two hours later we found that after about half a jar the liquid had stopped flowing. This might be because we left it too late in the season to tap into the sap. In late March the sap begins to rise into the tree and the last thing the tree wants is to lose any of it.
The liquid tasted of “tree” but we managed a drink, carefully sipping through the floating dead flies that were swimming around in the jar. Yum Yum.  SEE THE VIDEO

There is something else for Liam to try making wine from that will be doing everyone a big favour. Japanese Knotweed. The scourge of the countryside.

If you can’t beat it –eat it

We’re always looking for new delicacies to eat for free and the latest revelation is about Japanese Knotweed. The young shoots of this invasive plant are edible and can be made into wine, just substitute rhubarb with knotweed. The idea is to pick small asparagus looking tips from the knotweed plant and make them into wine, puddings, again like you would with rhubarb, either a crumble or a fool. Harvesting between now and May is the best time as the shoots are young and tender.
It’s estimated that in the UK alone it would cost £13.5 billion to eradicate the pest and has already cost £70 million to keep it off of the new Olympic site in London so we will have to do our bit to make sure we can keep it in check in Ireland.
Cutting the plant back weakens it and the plants will eventually die off so eating the plant will be a good idea all around. We haven’t tried this yet so if you feel brave and do it before us I would be delighted to know how you get on- check the internet for recipes and health and safety tips..
A couple of words of warning though; Knotweed will grow anywhere, even through concrete, asphalt and most importantly through sprays of herbicide. Make sure you gather it from places where you know the soil is clean and chemical free. The other thing will be to burn anything you don’t eat. The plant can grow from the tiniest piece left on the ground.
I’ll mention this to Liam next time my lads need a haircut, which won’t be long now. Everything’s growing really quickly in this sunshine, apart from my bald patch, that’s just going red.

Free Gardening Course in Inishowen

Free hands-on vegetable growing course – run by volunteers

Grow your own healthy veggies in an organic, easy and successful way.
Learn how to plan, sow, feed, protect and grow.
Prepare your beds with mutual help from the group.

Open info evening Monday 11th April 7.30pm......